Some Republican senators politely rejected President Donald Trump’s suggestion Thursday to “Delay the Election” beyond Nov. 3, indicating that the long-shot idea is dead on arrival in Congress.
“No, we are not going to delay the election,” the No. 3 Senate Republican, John Barrasso of Wyoming, said on Fox Business Network. “We’re going to have the election completed and voting completed by Election Day.”
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a frequent golfing partner of Trump’s, also gave the suggestion a thumbs-down. “I don’t think that’s a particularly good idea,” he said.
Graham said he believed Trump’s “concerns about mail-in voting are valid, but delaying the election is not the right answer.”
The United States announced that it had suffered the worst economic decline on record in the second quarter of the year, with gross domestic product contracting by 32.9 percent. Recent polls have shown Trump’s presumptive Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, pulling ahead in national surveys and key swing states.
“The election is not going to be delayed,” said Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who faces a competitive re-election campaign this fall. “We’ve got to make sure that we have the resources and we don’t have the debacle that we’re seeing in, say, the state of New York. The election is going to happen in November, period.”
Tillis wouldn’t comment when asked whether he thought mail-in voting was safe.
Absentee voter fraud is extremely rare in the U.S., experts say. Many Americans have told pollsters they would prefer to vote by mail during the coronavirus pandemic.
The president doesn’t have the legal authority to delay the election, as the Constitution gives Congress the power to set the date. Even if Republicans were to get on board with a delay, Democrats control the House. And a hypothetical delay wouldn’t extend Trump’s time in office — the 20th Amendment establishes a hard date of Jan. 20, 2021, for the end of his current term.
“I’m concerned about election fraud,” said Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. “But we should not delay the elections.”
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., laughed, shook his head and said “no” when asked about delaying the election.
(NBC News)
